Our Team

We are a group of counsellor educators and graduate counselling interns from Acadia University’s M.Ed. Counselling Program that believes that quality mental health care should be accessible to all. Our graduate counselling interns provide cost-free counselling services to individuals across the Annapolis Valley and throughout Nova Scotia under the supervision of our faculty. These services are available online or in-person to meet the needs of our clients. We aim to empower people to tell their stories, move towards healing, understand themselves, and make a difference in their lives and communities.

Janis Dawson

Centre Coordinator

 

Tanya Surette

Faculty Lead/Co-Founder

Tanya has an interdisciplinary academic background, with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Psychology, a Masters in Counselling, and a PhD in Education, where her studies focused on anti-oppressive and critical pedagogy in education and counselling.

For the past 18 years, she has been a psychologist and counsellor, working with clients and groups of all ages while holding roles in residential youth care, schools, post-secondary, and private practice settings. For the past five years, Tanya has had the pleasure of supporting the development of forthcoming counsellors and is passionate about facilitating courses that promote identity and professional skill development.

When counselling, Tanya loves witnessing the remarkable strength of the human spirit and believes the most incredible progress can be made when she can get "out of the way." With an open heart and mind, she believes she sometimes benefits from each session just as much or more than her clients, who are her greatest teachers.

Tanya is the proud mother of two charismatic and incredible daughters who keep her active and on her toes. She enjoys spending her free time with her family discovering the many gifts being a guest in Mi’kma’ki has to offer.

Kelly Brenton

Faculty Lead/Co-Founder

Kelly holds a Doctorate in Psychology and is an assistant professor at Acadia University. She is also the Clinical Coordinator for the M.Ed. Counselling Program. She has been a counsellor for 25 years, working in various settings such as schools, non-profits, and private practice. She has taught at Acadia since 2019. She is a Canadian Certified Counsellor with the Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) and a Registered Counselling Therapist with the NS College of Counselling Therapists (NSCCT). She is also the Past-President of the Counsellor Educators and Supervisors Chapter of the CCPA.

Kelly is the mother of four beautiful daughters and a dog named Tiny. She and her oldest daughter became “Dr. Brenton” the same year (2022). She loves sharing good food and red wine with friends, reading fantasy books, and watching movies (Inside Out and Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium are her current favourites). As a Ravenclaw, she embodies creativity and playfulness and is inquisitive. Her favourite colours are orange and green.

Kelly especially loves counselling children and adolescents, whose wonder, creativity, and unique interests make each session rewarding. She appreciates working with them and their families on their journeys of self-discovery and healing.

Birdie Bezanson

Co-Founder/Faculty Liaison

Birdie holds a Doctor of Philosophy from UBC. She also completed a BComm at SMU and a BEd from OISE and is a graduate of the counselling program at Acadia University (’00).

Birdie’s extensive travel and time living in other countries cultivated a deep curiosity about the methods and practices of non-Western healers. While at UBC, she developed an interdisciplinary program of research to study the systems of healing ascribed to by traditional healers in the Acores region of Portugal.

She has worked primarily with youth in educational settings and residential care facilities. Her clinical practice has focused primarily on youth affected by developmental trauma and the caregivers who surround them. Birdie has a strong interest in counsellor education and development.

Outside of work, Birdie can usually be found with her lab/pointer cross traipsing through the woods or learning something new they can do together.